In many common situations, a need exists for individuals out in "the field," such as law enforcement officers, foresters, hunters, or mountain climbers, to both signal for assistance and to report a position. Several systems or techniques are available to accomplish this result. These include a flare and a flare gun, although such devices have limited usefulness due to both the range and accuracy attainable. Likewise, conventional radio transmitters and receivers are available; however, these suffer from disadvantages such as weight, limited range, and also lack of precision in the position reported, if any. Thus, a need exists for a convenient and transportable device or a method for providing a signal for emergency assistance that also provides the position from which the signal was emitted accurately and to a high degree of precision, such as within a few hundred feet.